made in america

first day of school

On Jan 6, 2014 my little baby started pre school. There were a few tears (still are some days) but he seriously loves it, and doesn't want to go home when I come to pick him up. It's been good for him to be around kids, and people other than me in general. Apparently on the first day he made friends with a girl named Sophie, and the two were inseparable. In the last 2 months he has come home with several masterpieces that are adorning our refrigerator, and he has learned his ABC's. He's really good with "ABC" then the middle has a lot of grunting noises, and he picks back up with "QRS TUV double S Y and Z… Now I uh uh ABCs next time uh uh sing ah me". Quite impressive considering I couldn't get the kid to say any of it on my own. He also counts to twenty. Granted each time he skips a different group of numbers, but I'm pretty sure he's capable of it. He's gotten MUCH better with colors. Before school, everything was "geen" and now I'm fairly certain he knows at the very least green AND blue, sometimes yellow, red, purple, orange, pink, and black. Well, at least he knows that they are colors. It's a work in progress. But, anyways, here he is on his very first day…

christmas 2013

After lots of traveling back and forth across the world, Patrick, Gunnar, and I got to spend Christmas with just the three of us. We enjoyed relaxing (aka being lazy), and tried to really get into the whole Christmas-in-summer thing. It was weird. Instead of bundling up, we were trying to cool off anyway possible. In exchange for Christmas dinner like we're used to, we had tiger prawns and Moreton Bay bugs. Google it, it will haunt your dreams. All in all it was a great holiday. Gunnar especially enjoyed all the presents.

Expanding on my family's Christmas Eve tradition of a brand new pair of pajamas, Gunnar got those, along with a Christmas movie, and a special snack that we all enjoyed together before bedtime.

Christmas morning came, and Gunnar didn't know what hit him. We had spent the days leading up to Christmas trying to get him to understand, but all he got out of it was that he recognized Santa, who said "ho ho ho" and that he brought candy (a trip to Bunnings where a store Santa handed out candy canes made him think that was it… although he was excited for just that). Santa, as you can see, wanted to be sure our little trouble maker stayed in bed until it was time to open presents…

Then it was game on!

giving thanks 2013

Only a few months late, but for Thanksgiving, I had the most to be thankful for… a trip home! I brought Gunnar back to the states for 2 weeks (it ended up being almost a month, but we'll get to that). We enjoyed our time with family, and my little boy loved running around on the farm with his pups again.

Sisters.

SciWorks with Mimi and Bepa

Puppy love.

I knew 2 weeks wouldn't be long enough of a visit, and as it turns out, Delta had the same thing in mind. To make a VERY long story short… After a series of delays over 2 days of trying to get on a plane back to Australia, I threw in the towel and got rebooked on a flight leaving 11 days after, and 2 states north of when and where I was originally supposed to fly from. This was because Patrick and I were virtually flip-flopping. I was scheduled to arrive down under the day before he was to fly to Maryland. I opted to fly back with him. I think it saved everyone a whole lot of stress. Unfortunately for Gunnar and I, our bags didn't get the memo about the delays and ended up in Sydney without us. After a week, and a few shopping sprees on Delta's tab, we got them back, relatively unscathed.

We were sad to leave, and are counting the days until we get to go back! We love everyone back in the US, especially you guys, Jack and Win!

catching up...

Hey there, it's been a while! I could make excuses, but basically I've been lazy. So why not get right into the good stuff? These next few posts will catch you up on what we've been up to since OCTOBER (has it really been that long?)...

Nov. 15, 2013: For my 27th birthday, and official entrance into my late twenties, Patrick organized a surprise dinner for me at a local tapas restaurant. It was delicious, but more importantly the company was even better. I was very touched by all the people who turned up after only knowing me a few short months. Thanks Aussie friends!